Have you considered lifting weights to lose weight, if not ask yourself how many years have you tried losing weight by running, kickboxing, and sweating to the oldies without reaching your goals?
True, I have stated in previous articles that a pound is a pound, and that roughly reducing 3,500 calories will result in the loss of a pound. However, over the long-run there are several other factors to consider.
1. Change equals challenge
2. Weight loss can reduce muscle mass
3. Muscle burns fat
Change Equals Challenge:
The stress you put on your body during exercise contributes to the change exercise causes to your body. With the appropriate amount of stress, recovery, and nutrition you can effect the sort of change you experience to align with your goals. That said you must realize that the physical change you see is the result of your body adapting to the stress. As a result, overtime it is essential to change the load, speed, rest, nutrition, etc... to further condition your body. This in part explains why you experienced more results in the first month or two months of Zumba classes than you did in the following three years.
If you have been in a lifelong pursuit of a single goal (e.g., weight loss) and haven't had the benefit of working with a personal trainer, than chances are you have followed essentially the same routine for years. It doesn't matter if you're doing jumping jacks until you puke, kickboxing until you bleed, or any other aerobic workout; you have been doing the same thing. Sure there are minor changes in which muscles are doing the bulk of the effort, but you have been focusing on sustained increased heart rate, high repetitions, and low muscle load in all cases. Chances are you have done very little to increase muscular strength and lean mass.
Weight Loss Can Reduce Muscle Mass:
If you can relate to the previous section, and you have done little to increase muscular strength and lean mass but have lost weight, chances are you have reduced your lean body weight as well. If you are like most people, after some time you got bored with your workout and regained the weight previously lost. At this point you have actually increased your body-fat percentage. When you burn calories they are not all from fat. The percentage of calories burned from fat depends on your heart rate, diet, and workout. The good news is you can manipulate the ratio by using a heart rate monitor, decreasing carbohydrates, increasing lean protein, and incorporating anaerobic exercise for the purposes of building muscle.
Unfortunately, after years of struggling to lose weight, many will turn to low-calorie diets, extreme aerobic exercise, and avoid all possibilities of "bulking" weights. This is the worst combination for weight loss. In an attempt to sustain itself the body will convert to a starvation mode and store more calories as fat. At the same time, the intense caloric burn will require energy. Without sufficient glucose stores from carbohydrates the body will turn to the next available source and begin breaking down muscle. Without incorporating weight training, the body is not actively maintaining or rebuilding muscle and overtime you become, at best, a skinny fat person destined to replay this scenario over and over.
Muscle Burns Fat:
Unless you are running marathons, chances are you are not burning significant calories during your workout to lose significant weight. Not to say it doesn't contribute to the 3,500 calorie equation, but you can't expect to run off a days' (or lifetime) worth of junk food. In reality, the calorie deficit created from exercise is as much related to the time after your workout as it is to the time on the treadmill. That is to say, working out increases your set metabolic rate (or the calories you burn while at rest) for roughly an hour after you finish your workout. This is true whether you are squatting 315 for 5 reps or your bodyweight for 30. The difference is that muscle, unlike fat actually requires calories to sustain itself. Literally muscles burn calories. Every pound of muscle you add burns 30-50 calories a day. The more muscle you build the more calories you burn just sitting at your computer reading articles about losing weight. The most common response I get from women is, "but I don't want to bulk up."
I promise you that unless you have a pituitary issue, are taking anabolic steroids, or train solely for the purpose of gaining mass, you will not bulk up! The truth is that many men who naturally produce testosterone, will spend their entire lives and thousands of dollars on mass building supplements, trying to bulk up, and will never reach the level that most women imagine when they read this article. The key is that this is just one phase in a weight loss plan.
Where to Go Next:
Considering it is the middle of May, I am sure the skeptics in you is hesitant to risk six weeks trying this and miss out on a month and half of crash dieting in the hopes of squeezing comfortably into a bathing suit. Before you close this article in search of one that promises six-pack abs and buns of steal, ask yourself this, "have those article ever worked for you in the past?"
Try something new; follow the workout provided in the article full body waterfall for four weeks. Be true to the weights (i.e., heavy enough that you cannot possibly do more than 8 reps but aim for muscle failure at 4 reps). Limit cardio to no more than two days a week and rest the other two (nothing more strenuous than a light walk and normal daily activity). At the end of four weeks continue with the program but increase the reps (and decrease the weights) to the 10-12 range for the next 4 weeks. From here you can go back to aerobic training for the next 4-6 weeks; wash rinse, and repeat.
For the purposes of diet consider this suggestion in conjunction with your own unique dietary needs as identified by a nutritionist or your physician. Eat 5 small meals a day consisting of lean protein and one serving of fresh vegetables. Daily consume lean protein (approximately 1 gram per pound of body weight) 5 servings of vegetables, and 3 servings of fruit. Limit fat to small amounts from nuts, avocados, low-fat dairy and lean protein. Most importantly remove all added sugar and simple carbohydrates.
If by the middle of July you are not seeing significant results you can go back to sweating to the 80's and crash diets. In all seriousness, increasing your lean body mass will make you feel better, carry yourself better, and move more efficiently. This is not intended to be a miracle program, but part of a holistic approach to improving health and fitness while addressing a major gap in many programs. Most importantly have fun learning something new; Live Fit, Be Fit...
Lift Weights to Lose Weight
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